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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

I took a slight detour from working on my Jubilee quilt last week and made this for our local Children's Home Society as a charity quilt. I'll get it quilted and turned in soon. The 5" squares were from the free table at guild last week. We're always short of boy quilts so this should be perfect.

Here's a progress picture of the berries and leaves on my Jubilee quilt. It's kind of slow going but it's looking wonderful (to me at least!).

Then we went to Asheville, NC for the long weekend and I was completely distracted by these 3 little munchkins. Oh my goodness........

Here's my son's family after the baby dedication Sunday morning.

Both my children and their families - love these people!!

And looking slightly wilted after a long fun-filled weekend, a very happy Nana Girl and her hubby. We celebrated 39 years while we were up there. Life doesn't get any better :)!! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.

Friday, May 18, 2012

I realized several months ago, that I forgot to share the quilt I made my husband for Christmas. Since it was so late, I decided to wait for Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival. My husband and I met in Storrs, CT at the University of Connecticut in 1971. We married and moved to Florida in 1973. Over the years my husband has become a very dedicated Uconn fan.

When I decided I wanted to make him a quilt, there really was only one choice. I found the logo of the Husky online and enlarged it until it was the size I wanted. The color scheme was simple, blue and white. I used mostly fabric from my stash.

I'm kind of new to machine applique but that didn't stop me from trying. I traced the Husky onto fusible web and started cutting. It completely started coming apart - the little spikey things were just too flimsy. So I ended up cutting it, adding little dabs of glue and pressing with a hot iron. Worked just fine. I then just machine quilted the design (raw edge).

The letters I took off one of his shirts, enlarged them and hand appliqued them down.

Each area of the quilt has different quilting designs. This white part is my favorite.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The center is done!! My portable design wall is not quite big enough for the whole thing, but you can get the idea. I used 2 different fabrics for the 4 blocks and then one fabric for the setting triangles. They "read" as one fabric but I really like the subtle difference. I also used a variety of reds and greens that achieve the same thing - they look like one fabric until you get up close.

This picture was taken when just the units were done before anything was stitched down. It gave me my first glimpse of what this might look like - and I was pretty sure I was smitten :). (The lights make it look more yellow than it really is. The other pictures are natural light.) When developing an original idea, the hardest part for me is knowing if it will look good after going thru all the work!!

Just a reminder of what the early stages looked like as I was appliquing the blocks. There were times that I didn't know if I could stick with it. Between all the little curved leaves and stems and the reverse applique, it was slow going.

So now that the 4 block are together, the next stage is adding the vines and leaves. This is always hard for me to get a natural looking flow to the vines, but it's also so fun and creative. This is really when I wish I had more artsy talent. But in the end, I'm the one that has to like it. So I just kept fiddling, pinning and re-pinning lots of little leaves until it looked right to me. My favorite thing in the world to applique is leaves and vines - so I'm a happy camper as I work on this next part.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Building a border is much more difficult than choosing a piece of fabric to match. You would think using random lengths of 2 1/2" strips that it would be pretty easy to create a border. I struggled just a bit. I raided my red stash to find pieces that are remotely close to this line of Grace by 3 Sisters. Many of the red pieces from that line didn't work as they had too much floral pattern and color to read as red. I thougt about doing the border red and green, but there was so much green I thought it needed the red to balance it out.

I finally got the center part pieced and down off the design wall. I will finish the border soon as I need to send it to a friend to show as a sample.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

My first block is finally finished with all its little parts. I took this picture outside so the colors are pretty true. The contrast of the pink and red is so pretty and the balance of the green and cheddar is perfect to me.

Here's the book that started it all.

And here's the picture of the block that jumped out at me and said "Make me!". I don't know much about the maker except that she made this quilt in 1860. Imagine if she was my age when she made this, she would have been born in 1800!! I feel such a connection to this woman and her quilt that I have named my quilt Jubilee Tribute.

To think I started from this just a few weeks ago, and I've ended up with this is so satisfying.

There are more blocks coming. I am trying to spend these weeks while I'm looking for work to get as much done as I can. Having time to spend on this hand applique has been therapy for me. I will always look back on this quilt and remember this time.

About Me

I have been married to my college sweetheart for 41 years. We have 2 married children and 4 grandchildren. Born and raised in Rochester, NY I started my first quilt in 1969 and have been crazy about fabric ever since. The quilting bug grabbed me for real in 1982 and has never let go.